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prasadm52652696
New Participant
June 24, 2016
Answered

How to merge the multiple indesign files as one

  • June 24, 2016
  • 2 replies
  • 164695 views

As I got 10 InDesign CC files.

I want to merge to 10 files into one.

Kindly advice me.

Thanks in advance!

      Correct answer Laubender

      Thanks tons for such a detailed note Laubender-nWcFZk!

      But honestly, this is one helluva lot of work. Opening 30 files, each having 25+ pages, and then combining them the way you've explained. The whole book is 830 pages. And dragging those pages onto the target masterfile also guarantees mistakes of the kind you'd hate to do. I tried the trick for three chapters and it is so inconvenient because the pages view so small, you can't visually check them... I'll perhaps need a projector to blow those windows and panels up !

      Why I need everything in ONE single file - even at the risk of making it unstable - is because there are a dozen stupid typos across all chapters, and I want to correct them in 12 shots - instead of 12X30 shots at least - including the repeats I'll have to do because of human errors I'll do in selecting pages... These are really menial errors that don't need me to read the whole thing.

      I have been really wondering why InDesign isn't as intelligent as the PDF is. You can select any number of pdf files and merge them all into one file - without having to open each of them...

      But yeah, your method does work for a thin book, no doubt. Thanks much!

      My Best

      Sanjeeva


      Hi Sanjeeva,

      I did not recommend merging pages to one big document.

      Just wanted to tell you where some step stones are.

      By all means stay with your 30 documents and manage them with an InDesign book file.

      FWIW: Find/Replace is also working between open documents.

      So open all documents of the book file and do Find/Replace for the known typos.

      Regards,
      Uwe

      2 replies

      A
      Anders Sahlqvist
      New Participant
      February 21, 2020

      I strongly agree with Laubender. Use the Book file! The other alternatives end up in all sorts of trouble.

      Scott Falkner
      Scott Falkner
      Community Expert
      January 2, 2023

      A tip for using the Book feature. When you create the book file first don’t add any documents. Once you have a Book file go to Page Numbering Options in the panel’s flyout menu and turn off Automatically Update Page and Section Numbers. Otherwise InDesign will try to renumber pages in each document as other pages are added in earlier documents. You might want that but I usually don’t as it can unexpectedly move a page from a left hand page to a right hand page and potentially mess up the layout on all effected pages.

       

        S
        SJRiegel
        Community Expert
        June 24, 2016

        You can either use a book file to synchronize styles, swatches and page numbering while leaving them as separate documents, or use the Move Pages menu item from the Page pallet fly-out menu to transfer all the pages of your documents into one.

          Barb Binder
          Barb Binder
          Community Expert
          June 24, 2016

          Or

          • Open the first two docs
          • Window > Pages
          • Window > Arrange > Tile
          • Drag 1 (or more) page(s) from the Pages panel in one file to the document window of the other.

          A dialog box will pop up asking you where you want to insert the new pages.

          ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
            S
            Sanjeeva_CredForce
            New Participant
            August 2, 2018

            Thanks!

            But what if I am bundling a book, and its 32 chapter-files need to be combined to create 1-single file.

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